Temptation: not just for the rich and famous
Not a season goes by that we don’t hear of some public figure’s fall from grace. A famous pastor is exposed as a hypocrite. A politician’s career is engulfed by scandal. We watch, and we wonder at the many ways in which sin brings down the high and mighty.
The temptations that periodically topple the rich and famous might have little hold on us; most of us aren’t faced with the temptation (or ability) to commit large-scale financial fraud or to live secret lives of decadence and debauchery. But if we think we’re immune to sin and its consequences, we are greatly mistaken, as Charles Spurgeon reminds us in this devotional message from his classic Morning and Evening:
Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be a domestic servant, a farm labourer, or a mechanic, and you may be greatly screened from temptations to the grosser vices, and yet some secret sin may do you damage. Those who dwell at home, and mingle not with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so.
Pride may enter a poor man’s heart; avarice may reign in a cottager’s bosom; uncleanness may venture into the quietest home; and anger, and envy, and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural abode. Even in speaking a few words to a servant we may sin; a little purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations; the mere looking out of a window may be the beginning of evil. O Lord, how exposed we are! How shall we be secured! To keep ourselves is work too hard for us: only Thou Thyself art able to preserve us in such a world of evils. Spread Thy wings over us, and we, like little chickens, will cower down beneath Thee, and feel ourselves safe!
Read the complete devotional at Back to the Bible.
It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, famous or obscure. We’re all equally in need of Jesus Christ, and we are all threatened by sin and temptation if we don’t rely on his grace.
This is so true; no matter what work we do, I can say that judging someone else has been a bad thing and the very thing we judged can fall upon our shoulders. Stupid and simple, yet a true example was when I used to judge a friend of mine for always purchasing Starbucks coffee every morning…after a while I found myself addicted to Starbucks…see, I should not have judged.
God bless, PV
Thank you Gospel.com and PV,
You are absolutely right. Whenever I judged people, I found myself guilty of the same sexual sin. Please pray for me to keep up sobriety and to find ways to overcome sexual temptation.
Thank you
Neil
“To keep ourselves is work too hard for us.” Wow! That is so true.
i under stand i use to judge people because there were to fat and now im not as skinny as i use to be
It’s amazing how superficial we can be . I for one have a bad habit of judging people always thinking i no best and yet i see how people judge me all the time . The other day my chemist looked at me different because i had a tee-shirt on my tatt’s where showing i saw him change his few on me instantly . And Niel i would bye a book by Dr. Allan Meyer from good man to valiant man . It’s having a profound effect on me. And lets not forget we are only men and woman.